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Paedoclione doliiformis
Paedoclione doliiformis is a species of sea angel, a small floating sea slug, a pelagic marine gastropod mollusk in the family Clionidae. Paedoclione doliiformis is the only species in the genus Paedoclione.[2] The generic name is a reference to the paedomorphic habit of this genus, which retains many larval features throughout its life.[3] Paedoclione doliiformis was originally described by Charles Haskell Danforth in 1907.[1] It was not collected by zoologists for the next 61 years.[4] It was rediscovered in 1968 by Lalli (1972).[4] DistributionThe type locality of Paedoclione doliiformis is Casco Bay, Portland, Maine.[1] The distribution includes St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia, the Gulf of Maine[3][4] and possibly elsewhere. Description Paedoclione doliiformis retains juvenile (larval) physical characteristics for the whole of its life.[4] This is called neoteny (a kind of pedomorphosis).[4] The body length is up to 1.5 mm.[2] Paedoclione doliiformis has no shell.[2] It is a gelatinous, mostly transparent pteropod, and it only has a shell in its embryonic stage.[citation needed] The orange visceral sac is confined to the anterior part. Life cycleMating is carried out ventrally for mutual fertilization. The following spring, this results in a free-floating, gelatinous egg mass. Eggs hatch after three days, and the shell is retained until the 11th day.[3] Feeding habitsPaedoclione doliiformis feeds exclusively on Limacina helicina and on Limacina retroversa, but solely on juveniles with shells smaller than 1 mm.[5] Its abundance is closely linked to that of its prey.[3] References
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